Gears of War 4 is a third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition and published by Microsoft Studios. It is set 25 years after the end of the Pendulum Wars between the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) and the Union of Independent Republics, the two superpowers of the planet Sera who fought for control over the natural resource "immulsion".

The war was ended when COG gained the advantage, but it was immediately followed by a Locust attack on what is known as Emergence Day or E-Day. This ended in the destruction of all immulsion resources with the Imulsion Countermeasure weapon, which also took out the Locust and the Lambent. The aftermath has led to a society with a reformed COG with only hundreds of thousands of humans left, but void of fossil fuel and with powerful "windflare" storms that form across the planet Sera where the game takes place. To prevent the population from declining, cities are now walled off to prevent against outside danger. This has also led to the formation of Outsiders. These are survivors that reject the COG rule and live outside of the jurisdiction, conducting raids for resources.

The game's story campaign focuses on J.D. Fenix, son of Marcus Fenix and Anya Stroud from the earlier games, together with his friends Delmont Walker and Kait Diaz. Early on they join an Outsiders group led by Reyna to get away from COG rule. They assist with raids and acquiring technology, until they are eventually attacked by unknown creatures dubbed The Swarm. This leads J.D. to reluctantly ask for the help of his father to identify and defeat the creatures. Next to Marcus, this brings back other known characters as well, such as Cole, Baird and Sam.

• Gears of War 4